Elevator controls



Dec. 24, 1968 J. H. KUZARA ET AL 3,417,842

ELEVATOR CONTROLS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Oct. 8, 1965 INVENTORS JAMES H. KUZARA ORVAL J. MARTIN Dec. 24, 1968 J. H. KUZARA ET AL 3,417,842

ELEVATOR CONTROLS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed OCt.

INVENTORS JAMES H. KUZARA ORVAL J MARTIN onf ufo/QM@ 0N had www TDF, LVM@ u mmm u www 9 t .v Q 03mm ovm ma.. m. N5 E.. w. n. wlan e. ms@ n. wzo win ufff United States Patent O N' 3,417,842 ELEVATOR CONTROLS James H. Kuzara, Sylvania, and Orval J. Martin, Toledo,

Ohio, assignors, by mesne assignments, to The Reliance Electric and Engineering Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 494,056 13 Claims. (Cl. 187-29) This invention relates to elevator controls and more particularly to controls for establishing the spatial relationship between elevator car position and signals effective along the path of travel for said car such as calls for service.

Heretofore it has been known in the mechanical and electromagnetic switching of elevator controls to establish circuits which ascertain the presence of calls above or below the location of the elevator car. In United States Patent 2,074,575 to Waters et al. issued Mar. 23, 1937 car calls above a car are sensed through a series of cam actuated normally closed switches, one for each landing position of the car, which is opened at the switch of the landing at which the car is located. Call circuits are connected for each landing to the switch for that landing so that an energized line is connected therethrough to the series of switches. A topmost car call relay is energized at the upper end of the series of switches as long as a call is registered to connect the energized line above the switch opened at the car position. Thus the relay is energized so long as a car call is registered above the car and is dropped when there is no car call or the highest car call is at or below the car. This patent also discloses a topmost hall call relay which is dropped as long as an up hall call is at or above the car or a down hall call is above the car and is pulled when no hall call exists above the the car and no up hall call is at the car. This latter circuit employs the converse of the topmost car call circuit in that it 'has a series of normally closed hall call relay contacts with connections to car motion commutated mechanical contacts from the junctions between the up and down hall call relay contacts for each landing. One side of the line is connected to the lower end of the series of call switches and the other to the commutated car position contacts.

Such circuits are cumbersome and require a substantial amount of equipment which can be supplanted by the incorporation of solid state circuit elements. Further with the advent of solid state controls many of the mechanical functions of control equipment have been eliminated and frequently the mechanisms to operate mechanical switches of the type described are not available.

An object of the present invention is to improve elevator controls.

Another object is to facilitate the ascertaining of the spatial relationships between moveable elevator cars and signals requiring functions of the cars as they advance along their paths of travel.

A third object is to simplify the 'detection of the relationship of calls for service to the location of elevator cars.

In accordance with these objects one feature of this invention is to employ logic elements which readily lend themselves to solid state circuitry as the means to ascertain the existence of calls for service and to ascertain the location of such calls relative to the position of elevator cars.

A second feature is a cascaded group of logic ORs arranged so that each OR receives a gating input if any call is present for a landing beyond that which it represents. Each OR has a second input gated by a registered 3,417,842 Patented Dec. 24, 1968 ICC call for its landing. Its output is the call beyond input for the OR of the next landing.

Another feature is the cross connection of each ORs output to a coincidence gate or AND having a second input from a car position signal generator. When coincidence of car position and call at or beyond occurs the circuit is gated. If a single signal is desired ANDS cross connected from the `ORs have their outputs coupled to a common OR.

Another feature involves inhibiting all but a limited range of responses to relationships between registered calls and car position by developing inhibit signals from cascaded ORs fed by service calls. Such signals can be derived from the ORs in conjunction with gating signals employed in other regions of the circuits.

The above and additional features and objects will be more fully appreciated from the following detailed description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is a logic diagram of a circuit which indicates the presence of a registered call above an elevator and more generally typities circuits for detecting calls beyond selected locations; and

FIG. 2 is a logic diagram of a circuit which indicates an up call at the location of the elevator but none below that location and typifying circuits which restrict the signals to a limited region related to the location of the elevator.

The circuits shown adapt themselves to various utilizations in an elevator system. Thus while they have been derived from an elevator system shown in United States patent application Ser. No. 493,973 led herewith for Elevator Controls in the names of Donivan L. Hall and William G. Susor wherein landing calls are assigned to individual elevators independently of the position of the elevator and frequently substantially in advance of the arrival of the elevator in the slowdown zone for the landing, it is to be appreciated that they might be applied to conventional elevator circuits such as that set forth above. The circuit of FIG. 1 can be utilized to ascertain the existence of a call beyond the car as a call above or a call below or a call at the car. Further the call might be a car call, and up landing call, a down landing call or a combination of these calls.

The exemplary circuits are illustrated for a ten landing system. The present circuits lend themselves to expansion or contraction as required by the number of landings by adding or removing a stage for each additional or eliminated landing. These circuits are shown for a single car. It is to be understood that although the system of the aforenoted Hall-Susor patent application develops an assignment between each landing call and a car, these circuits can be utilized where landing calls are common to all cars.

In the present disclosure the circuits Ihave been modularized. FIG. 1 illustrates a `direct drive module DD1 and FIG. 2 and inverse drive module ID1. There terminals have been depicted as circles enclosing identifying numerals and arrow-headed leads extend therefrom to indicate interconnections to other circuits of the system of the Hall-Susor patent application. Terminals are identified by their module designation and their number. Thus, on the drawings connections from illustrated terminals are designated by a destination or source label as for terminal 22 of DD1 in the upper righthand corner of FIG. l having the label DMZ-15 for terminal 15 of the cars second landing ldemand memory. In addition to the power supplies to the modules as at DD1-1, DD1-23 and DD1-11 other connections are made to the cars demand memories DM1 to DM9 (not shown), the cars lead position signal source LPI to LP9 (not shown), and the cars start stop logic SSL (not shown).

Since logic circuit elements such as the ORs, ANDs and inverters are well known and are available in many forms the details of such circuits have not been set forth here. The symbols for these logic elements as typied in FIG. 1 include ORs as element 518, ANDs as element 519 and inverters as element 529. The set signals to these elements have been indicated by polarity signs adjacent their input leads and their resultant output signals have been set forth by signs adjacent their output leads. Thus any negative input to OR 518 results in a negative output and a coincidence of inputs to all leads of AND 519 results ina negative output which is inverted by its inverter to a positive output.

In FIG. 1 call inputs are shown from sources termed demand memories (not shown) identified as DM1 lthrough DM9. These demand memories are individual to the cars and have outputs for assigned up and down landing calls and for any car call for landings 2 through 9 in the case of DM2 to DM9 respectively, and for an assigned down landing call and any car call for the highest landing from DMI. Negative signals from any of terminals DMZ- through DM9-15 to DD1-22 through DDI-15 indicate either a landing call assigned the car or a car call for the car or both landing and car calls for landings 2 through 9 respectively. A negative signal at DM1-18 to DDI-14 indicates either a down landing call'assigned the car, a car call or both for the uppermost or tenth landing. Each signal is applied to an OR, 511 to 518 in the case of DMZ to DM9 and 518 in the case of DMI, land either directly on through said OR to an AND 519 through 527. An OR gated by a signal from the demand memory for its landing gates all ORs for landings below since the output of each OR is an input of the OR for the next lower landing. For example, a signal from DM4-15 to DD1-20, signifying that the car has a call for the fourth landing, gates OR 513 for the fourth landing to pass a negative signal to the tandem inverters. This twice inverted signal gates OR 513 for the third landing which passes a negative gating signal to OR 511 for the second landing. The tandem inverters in this instance are employed to provide gain in the circuit.

Any call for the second or higher landing will thus gate OR 511 to pass a negative signal to terminal DD1- 24. This signal signifies that some call is present for the car for at least one of landings 2 through 10 and is utilized in the start-stop logic of the car at terminal SS1-17 in a manner not shown.

Coincidence of car position at a landing for which an OR of the series S11 through 518 is gated signies that a call is registered for the car requiring its service above its current eiective position. Car position is represented as a negative signal from one. of terminals LP-l to LP-9 coupled to DDI-3 to DDI-12 for landings 1 through 9 respectively. Any such signal enables an AND of the series 527 through 519 respectively so that a call above will gate that AND. With a call for the fourth landing registered OR 513 will gate AND 52S if the car is at the third landing and applies a negative signal at DDI-5, OR 512 gated by OR 513 will gate AND 526 if the car is at the second landing, and OR 511 will gate AND 527 if the car is at the irst landing. However, if no calls are registered above the fourth landing and the car is at the fourth landing or above no AND will be gated. The gated AND has its negative output inverted to the input of positive signal gated OR 528 common to all ANDs so that it is gated for any call above the car and issues a positive'signal to inverter 529. The resultant negative signal from inverter 529 is passed through DD1-2 to SSL-22 of the cars start stop logic.

Variations of the circuit of FIG. 1 include displacing the car lead positions one stage in the AND seriesV to represent calls at or above the.eifective car position. Thus if AND 525 enabled by fourth landing or 513 were coupled to LP-4, instead of LP-3, the gating of AND 525 would indicate acall at or above the car while the car was at the fourth landing. Other variations include restricting the inputs to the ORs to up calls for service at the landings. This would signify up call above car. The order of OR and AND gating can be inverted to provide an indication of calls below the car as by arranging the cascaded ORs for respective landings in an ascending sequence so that gating of an OR for a landing gates all ORs for landings above and by gating the ANDs cross connected from each OR by car lead position signals for the next landing above, as for a call for the second landing by a third landing lead position. This would indicate a call below the car.

FIG. 2 illustrates a circuit for restricting the output signal from cascaded ORs to coincidence of the call and the car positions. An inhibiting interconnection from the call next adjacent the call of current car position provides this feature. The positive signal at output terminal IDl-S signies the presence fo an up call at the landing of the car position but none below that position. This signal is employed in stopping a down car for the lowest up call assigned that car (by means not shown). Up calls are indicated from the demand memories of the car at terminal 6 for landings 1 to 9 as negative signals from DM1-6 through DM9-6 to terminals IDI-13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 4 and 7 respectively. The calls for the first and second landings are applied to OR 622 and every other OR of the series 622 to 629 has an input from an up call output of a demand memory and from the OR for the next lower landing. Thus, an up call for any landing gates the OR for that landing and all landings above.

Car position is indicated as a positive signal from the lead position signal source through LP1-LP9 and terminals ID1-12, 9, 11, 18, 20, 3, 1, 5 and 6 to partially enable ANDs 631 to 639 for landings 1 to 9 respectively. These ANDs are further partially enabled from the up calls either through inverter 640 directly or through ORs 622 through 629 and either an inverter 640 or 641. In order to gate an AND for a landing the car must be positioned at that landing, an up call must be registered for that landing and car and no up call can be registered at a lower landing. This later condition is derived from the cascaded ORs of the calls `by providing a third input to the ANDs from the OR output for the next lower landing. Such a negative call signal is imposed on the center input of the AND to inhibit it. If no such signal is present, the coincidence of an up call at the car position gates the AND for that position to issue a positive signal which is inverted to OR 621. Each AND 631 to 639 has an input to OR 621 so that a signal from any AND produces a positive up call at the car but none below signal through inverter 630 to IDI-8.

Registration of an up call for the seventh landing gates OR 627 by imposing a negative signal from DM7-6 to lIDI-22. With no other up calls imposed, ORs 628 and 629 are inhibited. If the car is at the eighth or ninth landings to partially enable ANDs 638 to 639 no signal will appear at IDl-S since the next lower landing OR inhibits those ANDs. Thus eighth landing OR 628 imposes a negative inhibiting signal in the center input of ninth AND 639 and OR 627 inhibits AND 638. If the car? is at the seventh landing AND 637 is gated since gate OR 627 enables the upper input, inhibited OR 626 enables the center input and the seventh lead position signal enables the lower input. Any up call below would gate OR 626 to inhibit AND 637.

As with FIG. 1, the circuit of FIG. 2 can be arranged for other signals. A down call at car but none above signal can be achieved with the configuration of FIG. 2 by inverting the circuit so that the ORs are arranged in a descending sequence of their associated landings by applying down call signals instead of up call signals to the iirst inputs of the ORs, by deriving the enabling input signal for the AND of a given car lead position from the OR of the landing of that lead position, and by deriving the inhibiting signal to the third input of the AND from .the OR of the next higher landing. If it were desired to ascertain the existence of a call one floor from the cars position, the lead position inputs could be shifted as by applying LP2 through LP9 to ANDs 631 to 638 for a signal up call at next lower landing but none below that call. If a zone of fioors adjacent a car is to be monitored, the OR of the inhibit signal can be displaced the range of the zone from OR of the enable signal. Thus if a signal up call at or one floor below car but no up calls two or more floors below were desired the inhibit signal should be supplied from the OR of the landing two below the landing of the enabling OR and the car position. For example, if the center input to AND 638 were derived from OR 626 a signal would be produced when the car was at the eighth landing and a call was at the seventh landing provided no call was below the seventh landing.

It is evident from the above discussion that various arrangements of serially related ORs with enabling and/ or disabling output signals cross coupled to ANDs having car position signal inputs can be made to provide signals useful in elevator control. Accordingly it is intended that the above disclosure be read as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described the invention, we claim:

1. An elevator control circuit for ascertaining the existence of any call for service displaced in a given direction beyond a given landing, comprising a plurality of ORs, each associated with a landing displaced in said given direction beyond said given landing, first and second inputs and an output for each of said ORs, a signal source representative of a call for service at said associated landing coupled to said first input of each of said ORs said ORs being connected in series with the output of each OR for each landing but the last in the series being connected to the second input of the OR for the landing next adjacent in a direction opposite said given direction whereby a call for service at any landing gates the OR associated therewith and the ORs of all succeeding landings displaced therefrom in said given direction.

2. An elevator control circuit for ascertaining the existence of any call for service at a landing having a given relationship to the effective location of the elevator car, comprising a plurality of )ORs each associated with a landing, first and second inputs and an output for each of said ORs, a signal source representative of a call for service at said 4associated landing coupled to said first input, said ORs being connected in series with the output of each OR for each landing but the last in the series being connected to `the second input of the OR for the landing next adjacent in a given direction, a plurality of ANDs each associated with a given landing, first and second inputs and an output for each AND, a coupling to the first input of each AND from the output of an OR associated with a landing having a given relationship to the landing of said AND, and a signal source representative of effective car position at said associated landing coupled to the second input of each AND, whereby a signal gated at any of said ANDs indicates the effective location of said car at the landing associated with said AND and lthe registration for a call for service at a landing having said given relationship to said effective car position.

3. A combination according to claim 2 including an output OR, an input for said output OR corresponding to each of said ANDs and a coupling between said output of each of said ANDs and a respective input of said output OR whereby the gating of said OR signifies the existence of a call having a given relationship to the effective car position.

4. A combination according to claim 2 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in an ascending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the first input of an AND associated with the next higher landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call below the car.

5. A combination according to claim 2 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in descending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the rst input of an AND associated with the next lower landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call above the car.

6. A combination according to claim 2 wherein the output of each OR is coupled tothe first input of an AND -associated with a next adjacent landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call beyond the effective car position.

7. A combination according to claim 2 wherein the output of each OR is coupled to the first input of an AND associated with the same landing, whereby gating of and AND signifies existence of a call at or beyond the effective car position.

8. A combination according to claim 2 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in descending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the first input of an AND associated with the same landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call at or above the effective car position.

9. A combination according to claim 2 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in ascending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the first input of the AND associated with the same landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call at or below the effective car position.

10. A combination according to claim 2 including a third input to said ANDs, an inhibiting signal source for individual ones of said ANDs from the output of individual ones of said ORs, and a coupling to said third input of an AND from said inhibiting signal source of an OR associated with a landing displaced at least one landing from the landing associated with the OR having its output coupled to the first input of said AND whereby the registration of a call for a zone of landings including at least one landing and having a predetermined relationship to the effective car position gates said AND provided there is no call having said given relationship to said effective car position and outside said zone of landings.

11. A combination according to claim 2 including a third input to said ANDs, a coupling including an inhibiting signal source for said ANDs from the output of the OR associated with a given landing to the third input of the AND associated with the next adjacent landing, and wherein said output of each OR is coupled to the first input of the AND associated with the same landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call at but none beyond the effective car position.

12. A combination according to claim 11 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in ascending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the third input of the AND associated with the next higher landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call at but none below the effective car position.

13. A combination according to claim 11 wherein said ORs of associated landings are arranged in descending sequence and the output of each OR is coupled to the third input of the AND associated with the next lower landing, whereby gating of an AND signifies existence of a call at but none above the effective car position.

No references cited.

ORIS L. RADER, Primary Examiner. W. E. DUNCANSON, Assistant Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 340-20 Notice 0f Adverse Decisions in Interferences In Interference No. 97,247 involving Patent No. 3,417,842, J. H. Kuznm and O. J. Martin, ELEVATOR CONTROLS, nal judgment adverse to the patentees was rendered Nov. 3, 1970, as to claims l, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

[Oficial Gazette March 27, 1.973.] 

2. AN ELEVATOR CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR ASCERTAINING THE EXISTENCE OF ANY CALL FOR SERVICE AT A LANDING HAVING A GIVEN RELATIONSHIP TO THE EFFECTIVE LOCATION OF THE ELEVATOR CAR, COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF OR''S EACH ASSOCIATED WITH A LANDING, FIRST AND SECOND INPUTS AND AN OUTPUT FOR EACH OF SAID OR''S, A SIGNAL SOURCE REPRESENTATIVE OF A CALL FOR SERVICE AT SAID ASSOCIATED LANDING COUPLED TO SAID FIRST INPUT, SAID OR''S BEING CONNECTED IN SERIES WITH THE OUTPUT OF EACH OR FOR EACH LANDING BUT THE LAST IN THE SERIES BEING CONNECTED TO THE SECOND INPUT OF THE OR FOR THE LANDING NEXT ADJACENT IN A GIVEN DIRECTION, A PLURALITY OF AND''S EACH ASSOCIATED WITH A GIVEN LANDING, FIRST AND SECOND INPUTS AND AN OUTPUT FOR EACH AND, A COUPLING TO THE FIRST INPUT OF EACH AND FROM THE OUTPUT OF AN OR ASSOCIATED WITH A LANDING HAVING A GIVEN RELATIONSHIP TO THE LANDING OF SAID AND, AND A SIGNAL SOURCE REPRESENTATIVE OF EFFECTIVE CAR POSITION AT SAID ASSOCIATED LANDING COUPLED TO THE SECOND INPUT OF EACH AND, WHEREBY A 